I'm going to guess it's your soil which you should have tested (see below). Not only a nutrient problem but a soil tilth issue as well. Check with your state's Extension Service. Each county should have it's own Cooperative Extension Office which provides free publications and information for the asking. They will have valuable vegetable/gardening tables available specifically for your area determined by universities and horticultural research scientists who have collected data from growing those crops in your state. Your tax dollars are already paying for this service so you may as well get some use out of it. My suggestion to you silverwind is to get your soil tested. Your Extension Service can provide you with soil testing information. Mine was only $9.00, less than the cost of some strictly pH tests, and far more thorough. No guessing at what might need to be added, no money wasted. See how detailed these examples are: Vegetable Planting and Planning Calendar for Missouri (download the pdf) complete with spring and fall planting dates (underneath the spring planting dates for appropriate crops), how much to plant per person, etc. They can also tell you the average last frost date for your area and ideal planting times for specific crops and varieties in your area. Here is an excerpt: Next time try a 1x1 or 2x2 raised bed with light, fully, professional growing mix instead of your existing soil. Here is a link that might be useful: On Soil Tilth

I'll be happy to make a trade with you. I have five items on your want list: Ugly Ripe, Red Calabash, Jelly Bean, Chives, and I can go with 10 Black Krim seeds too. I'm interested in: 1. Green zebra 2. Copia 3. Old Ivory Egg tomato 4. Amur Tiger tomato 7. Cantalope - Hale's Best 8. Arugula - Roquette 9. detroit red beets Check my list to see if there is anything else you'd like. Thanks!

This summer was the first I tried the greens. I don't know why I never thought of it before....they aren't much different than all the other brassicas we get greens from. I steamed some and ripped others into small pieces and added them to salads. For fresh eating in salads it was best to use small leaves that didn't have as many prickly hairs. The taste both ways was good and made me wonder why radish greens aren't heard of more often...Now I wonder what other garden edibles I've been neglecting over the years :)

Hi Chris, Should have tried Burpee's Salad Rose by now, huh? Too darn expensive, that seed company is. Their Burpee White might even be the one I'm looking for but don't know why they wouldn't say something about hairless, if it is. Grew the "giants" this year - crimson and German. Both very good if harvested early. During clean-up last week there were a few out there the size of grapefruits. Could get in a habit of saving seed from these different radishes but need to give it some conscious thought to do it right - you know what I mean . . . Planted the seed crop so late, for awhile all I thought I'd get were green pods. The ones from my Russians aren't what I'd call "fat" and I suppose they are even kind of tiny but very tender and mild. The leaves are pretty good - very similar to broad-leaf mustard. Flea beetles are the great enemies here. They don't seem to be deterred by hair. The Russians in the picture were planted so late they missed most of the flea beetle activity. You can see that they are generally unmarked. I see that Seed Savers offers a "Philadelphia White Box" radish. Not sure what that might mean. Steve